The pendulum - 10 years later.

My comments have requested to see the "advice" from Abe's doctor. Let me start by saying that even the doctor visits for Abe are different than they were for Ada. Now it feels more like an interrogation. These "check-ups" are actually just a barrage of questions to make sure I'm following all the current parenting rules. He begins with reminding me that Abe has to sit in a carseat and it has to be rear facing. Nevermind the fact that Abe is sitting in said carseat while he's telling me this. Then he goes on with things like:

"Does anyone smoke in your house?"
"Do you have any guns?"
"How many smoke alarms do you have?"

I've been going to this doctor for 5 years and he asks me this each time. Write it down for Pete's sake!

Then on to more personal questions that seem to try to judge my mental state.

"How do the other kids like the baby?"
"Do they help you out?"
"Are you getting any sleep?"
"How often do you get out alone with your husband?"

Then the questions actually about Abe:

"He is sleeping on his back?"
"How often does he eat?"
"How many diapers does he go through?"
"You're not feeding him any solid food, right?"

Abe's infant care sheets are actually very general compared to Ada's. There's nothing on there about not giving your baby water, however I had heard of it before he was born. It has just recently become taboo to do so. Weird how something that was recommended less than 2 years ago is now considered poison. Double weird since your body is made mostly of water. Apparently the baby could get water intoxication from having too much water and possibly die. Well so can adults! A little water never hurt anyone, and I mean that literally, 1 ounce of water!

Abe's sheet does say: "Sleeping on the back or side only, not on the stomach. However, this is a good time to work on 'tummy time', putting your child on the stomach for 5-10 minutes twice a day while awake in preparation for rolling and crawling."
I simply hate the phrase "tummy time". So you can't put your baby on it's tummy to sleep, even though it is obviously more comfortable that way. But now twice a day you have to put it on it's tummy while awake. Some babies hate "tummy time" and who could blame them? But now there are a whole line of mats and other products to get babies to tolerate "tummy time". Ridiculous. What ever happened to trusting your instinct?

There is nothing on Abe's sheet about staying out of the sun, which seems to be common knowledge now. I don't think anyone in their right mind would give a baby a sunbath nowadays.

Although I disagree with some of these new rules, all these changes are done with safety in mind and that I can support. I feel kids these days are safer now than in the past. I sometimes think I go overboard in trying to protect my kids. I don't allow them to do some of the things their friends can do and I don't feel guilty about it.

When Tommy was a baby we visited some relatives. While eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast with them one of them asked me, "Did he have some cinnamon roll?"
I looked around, "He who? You mean Tommy? He's only 4 months old!"
"Well he could gum it." was her reply. She laughed and said, "Mothers these days! So cautious!"

Indeed.